Report: Nokia EOS 41MP PureView Windows Phone in early trials at AT&T

Nokia still has big plans for their expanding Lumia line of Windows Phones this year with the next big reveal expected later this summer. That subsequent device is expected to be the ‘EOS’, an internal testing name that seems to refer to the Greek goddess of dawn (and not Canon’s brand of cameras).

The EOS is anticipated as the first 41MP camera Windows Phone, based off of the PureView 808 Symbian device, which was released in early 2012. Ever since that Symbian phone was revealed, a device literally in the making for years, people have wondered when it will transfer over to Nokia’s new darling, Windows Phone.

What makes EOS so important is that it stands to be the first truly groundbreaking Windows Phone hardware that is miles beyond what other OEMs are doing. Currently the Lumia 92x is garnering high praises from both reviewers and consumers with its high end, unique OIS camera, which is itself revolutionary. But the promise of an oversampled 41MP camera phone with the Lumia hardware and Windows Phone OS is drool worthy.

'Elvis' has entered the AT&T building

We’ve been able to confirm a few tidbits about this upcoming Windows Phone, which we will reveal here for the first time. We’re still going to file this under ‘rumor’ only because this isn’t our first-hand account of the device, but rather comes by way of numerous trusted sources whom we know and who have seen the device.

For one, the phone at AT&T reportedly has the codename ‘Elvis’. No, we have no idea why it is called that, but this is what we are hearing. (Note that is not a public name, but rather used internally for testing reference and to mask the device’s model number.)

Next up, we’ll just give you some bullet point specifications:

41 MP camera with Xenon flash

Nokia Pro Camera

32 GB internal

OLED Screen 768X1280

WP8 V 8.0.10322.71

FM radio

Flip to silence

Polycarbonate body

Takes a 35 MP picture and a 5 MP picture at the same time one to save one to share

Comes in yellow

No SD card

About 1 mm thinner than Lumia 920 with a big camera hump

No visible OS changes

Discussion

Nokia 808 PureView Symbian device from 2012

Notions of a ‘Nokia Pro Camera’ have been circulating around for a few weeks now, and while we don’t claim ownership of that revelation, we can say that it is on board this device. Nokia Pro Camera is expected to be an advanced mode for the PureView, which will allow users a more fine-grain control over the camera’s operations.

The OS version and additional features like FM Radio and flip-to-silence confirm what we already know about the Windows Phone GDR2 OS release and Nokia’s ‘Amber’ firmware, which will bring those features to all current Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices.

The device being thinner of course is very interesting as we understand it has tapered edges to help conceal the camera bulge, which while prominent is not as large as what is on the current 808. Likewise that it comes in yellow, which contradicts some earlier rumors saying there will be no colored devices.

Seeing as the device is entering early testing at AT&T should tell us a number of things, including its potential reveal/release date. A July time-frame is certainly not out of the question and Nokia themselves during the Lumia 925 event mentioned another "continuation of the Lumia story" later this summer.

We’ll of course keep you posted on any more information that comes forth, but for now, we’d say for those of you on AT&T you should start putting some money aside. For those in the rest of the world, no this won’t be only on AT&T, though details of any carrier exclusivity periods cannot be discerned at this time.

And you haven't learned it wasn't a mistake? 1) what price did Nokia get from AT&T per 920? 2) who would have promoted the 920 even to the extent AT&T did 3) would all carriers have taken it even if offered? 4) would all carriers have committed to taking on new models later on? 5) how was Nokia supposed to deliver more to more carriers when its well reported that 920 has been in short supply in MANY markets?
You know, just a few points to start thinking.

up to I saw the receipt 4 $4655, I did not believe that my brothers friend woz really erning money parttime on-line.. there aunts neighbour has been doing this less than 18 months and by now paid the dept on there apartment and got Mazda MX-5. this is where I went, QUE99.COMONLY

Let me just ignore your answers to 1 to 4. So, regarding 5 - in your counterfactual scnerio they would have beefed up production when they coud not beef production in the scenario that actually happened?

Try calming down a bit.
My original comment was partially sarcastic and you blew it way out of proportion.
My counter offer was purely sarcastic and you still rode the wave from your first over the top reply.
You're right. Does that make you feel better?
Drop it. I already have.

I'm with Viipottaja... people love to zoom in, drop their little negative comments that make crystal clear their total lack of understanding of the market, and then pretend they were kidding, and not just unaware of how things work. It's very tiring, and very hurtful to the moral and Microsoft's reputation in the long run. When enough silly little comments are made, people get the idea that nobody is happy and MS and Nokia are not doing good.

There are plenty of things to criticise (mainly MS's complete lack of urgency of making all the little imprrovements that would make people really happy). We don't need to invent management mistakes and blame the "good guys" (Nokia).

I love Nokia. I own a 710 currently and will move to the 925 when it's released on T-Mo. The comment was partially in jest and partially serious. I wouldn't call my lack of understanding total. Maybe partial but not total. I'll admit that but the fact still remains that I believe Nokia could've made more people happy and sold more phones in the long run by releasing the 920 on all carriers, or at least more than one, upon release.
And since we are on the topic of "Total lack of understanding the market",..
You must not understand the development side of things when you state, "MS's complete lack of urgency of making all the little imprrovements that would make people really happy." Talk about blaming the "good guys".

As for MS, I'm talking about the features that as a developer I could do in a day or two each tops, that fans have been begging for and have been ignored for three years. Things like ringer profiles, global orientation lock, custom notification sounds. These are things that would be VERY quick for them to do and get off the list, while making a LOT of WP users very happy. These are things that nearly every ex-ios or android user complains loudly about because they are simply expected in a modern phone os. They have little to no impact on anything else in the OS... volume profiles is the most complicated, but the other two are literally nothing. There is no reason that light changes like these should be put on the back burner for years.

Let's be very generous and say that it would take a single developer two months to knock out those three things. How can anyone make the case that they shouldn't just do it? It's just baffling.

You are stupid! And I literally only bought an HTC 8x because T-Mobile did not have the 920 I can't express the amount of days I spent trying to get around it. And don't let your dumbass bring up changing carriers. I don't regret buying it per se because my old phone was dead but if 920 had been on other carriers, looking at its popularity now, I'm pretty sure Nokia would have had greater success.

I am not suggesting you should change carriers. That does not necessarily mean that the 920 AT&T exclusivity was a mistake. The exclusivity _may_ have been the best option for Nokia at the time, and given that 920 was in short supply at AT&T for a while and was (is?) in short supply globally would have meant that had it been on all carriers it would have been in equally short or worse supply on all of them. I.e. the total sales number may not have been that much higher, or even lower given that the marketing support overall may have been even lower. And, Nokia may have received less revenue given that they may have had to sell it at a slightly lower unit price had they been able to get all carriers to take it on.

Obviously, for you personally it would have been better to have 920 on T Mo as well. But hey, at least you will have the 925 on T Mo soon and it seems like a pretty darn nice device! :)

I understand what you are saying but perhaps Nokia felt that with their exclusive device the traction and popularity would catch on later so they were not eager to supply what they thought would be overload. If they provided it to more carriers, I cannot possibly fathom that they would not have created more. They are a large company, they may still be a remenat of what they were but if they are releasing to multiple cellular companies I'm sure they would have had the foresight to create early. They definitely would still have had shortages and probably more so because there would have been a larger pool but I would not say it is because of a manufacture constraint but because of a lack of foresight.
However Nokia can now afford to make an exclusive becasue of the 928, and the 925. There is now a high end market dispersed on different celluar carriers with high enough caliber that even without the best of the best you still get a quality phone. Before when the brought only the 920 to AT&T Tmobile only had the 710 and AT&T already had several upgrades like the 800 and 900 serries. And given that they didn't even deem the 710 wothy of an upgrade to Windows 7.8. It shows that the Windows Phones that were on other carriers were shoddy at best. At the end of they day arguing about the 920 no longer matters because you can buy it and have it unlocked since its exculsivity has ended.

I don't know what the situation was in the states, but in the UK a lot of people who were excited about the 920 couldn't buy it due to carrier exclusivity, and by the time they finally did make it more widely available, the buzz had completely gone. Most retailers now either don't stock it or have it as an online only option. One sales guy that I asked about this said that by the time they could get it, focus and user attention had completely moved on to the upcoming HTC One and GS4 launches, and they couldn't justify the shelf space for what was now seen as an older phone.
I think arguing about the strategy that they used for the 920 does matter, if only because if they don't get it into their thick heads that they need to supply the phones to the people that want to buy them in the way that they want to buy, then they're going to repeat the strategy over and over again.
I've seen people not buy other Lumia models because a colour that they found particularly attractive was made a "colour exclusive" to another network. They've definitely not wanted to change network, so they've just gone for a different (non Windows) phone instead. Nokia are leaving a lot of money on the table by making it hard for people to switch.
I understand that this is about guaranteed purchase quantities from exclusive networks/retailers, but that's a really short sighted approach. They need to have the confidence in the product to let it sell itself.

Not sure about what they got, but in most cases it is the price Nokia asks for a unlocked phone. Second, Microsoft proved that they won't really help support the device at that time, but they are changing that now. Also, if all carriers had the device, there is no incentive to market it more than any other smartphone, so exclusivity makes a carrier push the device that much harder and most likely, there is a marketing push clause to the agreement. And Nokia doesn't have all the capital to push every new smartphone in their lineup. Third, I'm sure most carriers would love the variety. Fourth, it means maybe they wouldn't take the Lumia 720 or other non-high end models, but the 928 and 925 are only there for exclusive carrier features. And fifth, beef up production and make a big stock ahead of time. But Nokia may have been trying to increase demand of the product by having a limited supply, but that does would ridiculous.

Great ! you got it the stratagy i figured it out late because i got fustrated not seeing any lumia 9?? phones in my market (Trinidad & Tobago (Carribean)). I understand the plan.
I'm waiting for the lumia 925 and still haven't seen the lumia before that on any top carriers here.

We've to remember that Nokia as a smartphone brand is not as well known in the US as in Europe , so they probably had to go through tough negotiations with the carriers to get proper marketing and subsidies. Nokia's relationship with AT&T has traditionally been better than with Verizon, which is the reason why they get all the good stuff first. This is of course unfortunate as Verizon customers seems to be more open to non iPhones

Agreed. My original comment was more for the enduser wanting a flagship WP from Nokia. I think we all (non-ATT users) would agree that when we heard the 920 was an exclusive, we were a little upset knowing we would either need to switch or wait. For a lot of us it was wait...which sucked.

I don't know what part of the US you live in, but where I live, Nokia is known for it's old phones that would never break. I had a L900 last year for a week before switching to a One X (WP7 wasn't for me. Maybe when the EOS comes out I'll give it another go from my One?) and every time I carried it around somewhere a friend would think of it as a low-end phone that could make a hole in a brick wall. "It's a Nokia! Don't worry!" they'd say. iFunny has TARNISHED Nokia in among teens...

I can't imagine this one not coming to Europe. I hope it won't come to UK, Germany, France only though (and only a half year later elsewhere). But if it does, well, I'll make a trip :-) This will be the phone.

Don't complain too much. Using SD storage on a Windows Phone is not a terrific experience. I'm using a 620 for a bit while I wait for the EOS, and thought i'd be sorted with a fast 32GB SD card, but the music app starts to get really slow when you have a lot of music on an SD card (like hitting an artist name and waiting several seconds, wondering if it detected your input or not) before it does anything.

You can argue about the phone (purportedly) only having 32GB internal rather than 64GB, but not giving you the micro SD slot is just saving you from a distinctly non-high-end experience :)

The unavoidable root cause is that accessing the SD card is just a lot slower than accessing internal storage, but i'd hoped/assumed that Microsoft would do something intelligent like maintain a small index of the contents of the card in internal storage (so it would be super fast to browse, and the only time it would have to go out to the card would be to actually play something), but this appears not to be the case. It seems that, for example, when you tap an artist name in the music app, it actually goes out and effectively does a directory listing on the SD card to find out what files are there.

It's easily fixed if Microsoft wanted to do it, but as with all the little irritations with Windows Phone, it goes into the massive bucket of things that they never get around to because they have (supposedly) limited resources.

Android has similar issues with content on SD cards, especially with apps.

That's a good point. Hadn't thought of that. Though IMO it would look better if they just made the device a bit thicker so that there was no bulge (and so maybe wireless charging could be built in?). It would still be thinner than the 920. But the camera bulge is by no means a deal breaker, I'd just like to see an even back.

I hated the bulge on the 808. I could not get a good grip on it. Because when you hold the phone your hand is making a diagonal between the two heights, all empty space under there. And of course its not uniform so it feels uncomfortable. The matte coating was like soft sand and not grippy at all. And of course there were so many tapers everywhere especially the sides, there wasn't any single flat area you could really claw it. Phones should be either flat or have a curved back, convex design. There should not be strange things jutting up.

I much prefer they just fatten the whole thing with a nice curve towards the camera. I really like the 928 squared off look and flat sides with slightly curved back. They should've made it look like that instead, even with the added thickness. It would be way easier to hold and more pleasing to look at. Jean pockets are ruining everything. They should NOT use the weak looking buttons on the 928, however.

Most rumors state that the device is basically the 920 with the 41MP camera, better processor, Xenon flash,and thinner with the bulge. So I think wireless charging is already in. But a bigger battery or even a second battery that adds some power, but fits in the place that the hump doesn't need space. And a bulge, if up high enough, should support holding the device, but maybe it is because I hold the 920 in one hand just under the camera lens, that I think it can improve the phone.

Daniel, what you said along with pictures of the original 808 are just too obvious and logical. Once this phone is released people will FLOOD the forums, and comment pages with complaint after complaint about how the "bulge sucks", and "MS sucks", and "MS and Nokia don't know WTF their doing" because of that bulge, and "oh my gawd I can barely even hold it up for more than 20 seconds in my danty little frail hands, WTF were they thinking?!", "How can I even use it as a phone if I can't even hold it?", "The bulge is leaving an imprint on my hands", "OMG, why would I need such a great camera if I can't even use it for insta-hipster-crybaby app!"

Lol , good one Sean !
If people can survive Motorola phones (Motorola is the king of Camera Bulge) & live with a meh Camera , they should be fine with an excellent one :)
it all depends on how they are gonna implement it ! RAZR style or One X style ?

Uh, what a waste of time stating the obvious. I think you just want to feel superior and just finding something to nag about. Every popular phone has riddled with complaints in their forum. If there are no complaints, it means the phone is doomed.

As I understand, you'll refuse the phone because it doesn't have enough storage for media (TV episodes and media, per your own admission), and yet you carry around a Surface RT with SD capabilities to store said media, but... you prefer it on your phone than on Surface? You know, what with the bigger screen and faster handling of video and what not.

I think your logic exploded all over the place, which is why your problem doesn't really make sense any more...

Ditto here...pressed into service a rarely used 350gb WD portable hard drive I had to use with my Surface RT. Even though I've got a 920 with 32gb I don't use most of the storage. Between the Surface/WD (movies) and Skydrive (pics and docs) I can take everything with me in one small bag.

Typically the Nokia 808 down sampled to 5mp, upload to sky drive turned on, is there a way to have only the previous x days/months on the device and keep the rest in the cloud. Access through sky drive on laptop,tablet,wewe ultimately not a huge issue for "most people"

If the lack of SD storage will indeed be true, then I'll try to remain positive by hoping these two old wishes of mine will finally be true:
1) The phone will be water proof
2) It will use a new type of data compression technology to keep memory usage low

I totally agree here, if they are selling the smartphone as a rival to a high end camera then a SD card slot is a must have, every other digital camera has one. It would have been better with 16Gb internal and a SD card slot, even at 720P that memory will take 1-2 hours of footage, and then the user is left looking for somewhere to upload to.

Not everyone travels with a laptop. When camping and hiking, I don't carry a laptop with me. What I do carry is a phone which is my GPS receiver, camera and phone. Even with a battery pack, it's in a much more usable form factor than a laptop. So yes, a SD card slot is essential for a phone with such a camera.

I would not take a laptop either, but a tablet is small enough to bring on holidays (surface rt for example). Even if you don´t have one, if you are going camping you can with 32 gb of storage you can take hundreds of 5 megapixel pictures in pureview mode. If you are going on holidays anywhere where wifi exists then uploading to skydrive solves your issues. Of course if you want to go camping with the phone filled with media and you want to take loads of pictures you are out of luck, but then just get the surface rt... Again i´m not saying that I would not prefer for it to have an sd card slot, but to say that its a no buy just because of that is ridiculous to me.

I dropped my personal lumia 900 back in feb of this year and have been waiting for a MS surface phone or a ground breaking win 8 phone from someone....this could be it if the design look good, but right now, I'm leaning toward the 925 if I can get it unlocked and run on ATT. I like poly carbonate, but would like to see more aluminum. People associate quality with metals today. They look more high-end....C'mon manufactures, Bring It!

That is just plain ignorant, lot of people oytside the tech space want it, especially once they realise you can't fit a lot of 41mp or 35mp photos on to 32GB and still acomodate music, videos, apps and other crap.
If the no SD slot is true then Nokia is really stupid for not putting it in. Really really stupid, and its enough for me to not get the phone just because of this, I am in no mood to have to constantly juggle with storage space.

I thought it took 5 or 6 samples at 8mp and used the best of each sample to make one high quality 8mp photo... Is that not correct? I know the 808 doesn't operate that way, but I thought that's how they were going to implement the 41mp sensor into the Lumia line.

No. Nokia Oversampling algorithm doesn't work that way. Lets assume you're using 5MP PureView mode; so when you snap a pic camera will utilise 41MP to its full glory, but the algorithm will squeeze out every detail out of 7 pixel and pour it into single "superpixel". Meaning you get pixel bigger than what HTC called an "ultrapixel". Rich of information taken from 41MP sensor. With lossless zoom. And I believe the same algorithm is resposible for elimination of digital noise generated by bigger sensor.

mostly correct although the lossless zoom and the oversampling are two distinct capabilities. You can only have one or the other. If on the viewfinder you zoom 4x(I think that was max), then the camera is only using a part of the 41MP available....the part which is looking at the point you zoomed into. But in this case, each pixel is just that - 1 pixel and no oversampling nad reduction in noise possible. On the other hand, if you take 5MP pictures without any zoom, then the camera uses all 41MP available and oversamples multiple pixels to make 1 pixel which has reduced noise. This 5MP photo will be a lot clearer than a 5MP photo from the same camera that was taken after using lossless zoom.

It just may have an SD slot, just a smaller card and called an iSD or an iD slot. With the new card, Apple will charge 10 times normal prices to have the same amount of storage as an SD card, think the Vita's memory card.

Yes. Because Microsoft added microSD support back into WP8 JUST to appease the tech geeks...right. And Nokia puts microSD cardslots in all their low-spec Lumia budget phones to appease the tech geeks...doubley right.

The reason for microSD card slot is simple - but it's not because of what you think that many people wanting one. The reason is actually because it lets the OEM cut down on price for the low end phones. I take it you haven't notice that it is the low end devices like the 520 and 620 which includes the microSD card slots so they can include a tiny 8GB storage instead which probably allows them to shave another 8 to 10 bucks on a 150 dollar phone?

I had used a 16GB SD card for my N8 as backup since I was new to smartphones and didn't know any better; but even with all of my high quality photos(9MB and 12MB) and videos that I took, as well as the majority of my music on that device saved as .wav files, I never used all 32GB (at most I had 19GB free, at least 11GB free) and this is with being able to save apps and media on the SD card.

With Microsoft only allowing music (mp3's) and photos (and video?) to be stored on SD cards, 32GB is most likely the sweet spot for most. I still have 5GB free on my Lumia 900, so 32GB would be a good cushion for me.

I am out of space on my Lumia 900. I'm not camera happy, but I use it for work and random things. I have a number of games and apps and I'm tapped out. Considering the resolution and file sizes of the EOS, I would have liked to see the SD option. I'll take advantage of Skydrive, but it would certainly like to have the SD option. They keep saying it's a sacrifice in design, and I'm not saying I'm a structural engineer for these things, but there has got to be a way to put one in there. I'll also happily keep that 1mm if it meant another hour or two of battery life they could jam in there.

Finally, someone mentions Skydrive. I've had a 900, now 920, and I've never had memory issues because I upload my pics/vids to Skydrive immediately. I also wish there was a slot for microSD, but I've also been very happy with Skydrive for memory support. Anyone else feel the same?

Yeah... Nokia/MSFT do TONS of research on this very issue. Plain truth is 16GB is more than enough for the majority of phone users. We're skewed of course b/c we push our devices to the limit but the masses simply do not.

Is that why HTC came out and said people want thinner phones over more battery life? Because that is wrong, Nokia is trying to appease the masses and this is rumored specs so it may change for the better.

What an idiot comment. Cloud storage is just supplemental, and for convenience. No one is moving away from SD cards. They just want more money from you buying SKUs with more GB or paying for more cloud storage. It is also a cost reducer since cloud storage is way cheaper than onboard flash or even adding a microSD slot. There is only a limited amount of spectrum to use for wireless data, and virtually no one has unlimited data anymore. Not to mention the stupidity of thinking you can rely on wireless data inside buildings, which a majority of people work or live in. Or in bad weather, which seems to be everywhere nowadays with global warming. Such a damn stupid comment.

I haven't found yet a store for photo printing that accepts *any* Cloud Storage
but they do accept my SD card
I REFUSE to leave my phone behind in order to get good quality photos printed
Certainly not when I need my off-loaded HERE Maps in a foreign city

I am what I would consider a phone power user, and while SD card support would be nice, I would take a smaller form factor device any day of the week over an SD card slot and that is the tradeoff Nokia is forced to make. I don't need to travel with 20 movies and my entire music collection on my phone! My L900 and Zune smart playlists handle my media for me perfectly (yet I can't wait to upgrade to EOS when my contract is up!)

MS and Nokia need the advertising and retail commitment of carrier exclusives. It's 100% necessary. They do not have iPhone or Galaxy status yet where carriers are paying millions (Sprint) to beg for their devices. This is exactly why they've launched a 92x variant (with minor unique adjustments) so they can put the high range phone devices on all major carriers. When there are the clamouring's and lineups of people waiting around the block on the level of iPhone product launches, they may be able to launch on multiple carriers. They are simply not there yet. Hopefully soon enough.

Can't really blame Nokia for giving this to AT&T exclusively - if AT&T is subsidizing the device moreso than another carrier would, as well as advertise it, AND ensure that Lumia devices get timely updates...I'd give AT&T exclusivity too :)

As a Lumia user, owning a Lumia 900 for less than a year w/ 7.8 successfully installed, it appears to me that Nokia made the right decision with AT&T. Until other carriers can offer the same...

I would have bought the Lumia 920 long ago if it was available on my network. But Nokia wanted the stupid subsidized $99 price. What did they accomplish? A few hundred thousand COMBINED Lumia sales in the US? Wow, maybe they should rethink their stupid ass strategy. If it was available on Amazon unlocked I would have jumped on it, with the low MSRP. You can't even unlock the ATT Lumia 920. It is literally impossible except for a few lucky people.

"It is literally impossible", then how did I get my phone literally unlocked? AT&T has been issuing unlock codes ever sense May 9th. The only requirement is that your phone have been active for 90 days I believe. I actually got around that by going through an online form after the rep on the phone refused me.

Ooooooh, that's what it's called. Sorry, I couldn't look it up on my lower spec'd phone.
But then agan if my "lower spec'd" phone looks, and operates as well if not flat-out better than those with higher specs, then which one is really the crippled device?

It's just 6 months since lumia 920 launched, nokia should release it with 1080p when blue comes. But I guess Nokia must have something awesome in pipeline, the imaging company Nokia acquired, may be something special from it.

I bet you an EOS that you couldn't tell the difference :)
And if you happen to be a legit videophile, you should know that most people (and I'm being generous) can't tell the difference -- not that there is enough to freak about anyway.

I can definitely tell a dinky small ass 4.5" screen from a 4.7", 4.8", 5", 5.5" and pretty much every other flagship and even most budget Android phones out there. They had enough room to put a "normal" sized 5" screen on the Lumia 920, but their big ass bezels said no thank you we like looking fat and wasting space.

Yeah crappy resolution... I want 4k on my handheld device or its just not good enough... I don't care if I need a microscope to see the pixels... I just wanna have so that I have it yah know? Then if I need it, well then I have it!

Lol but from a marketing perspective and from the perspective of going toe to toe with android devices it would make sense even though we know there is no need...

Sad but true as I guarantee all the fandroids will be saying how it doesn't have this and that....

I am a little shocked no one has rooted a 920 and tried to put some other kind of OS on it actually too. I think the android owners are pretty jealous that windows phone has Nokia exclusively which is why they continually complain that Nokia doesn't make devices with multiple OS's.

Dude, honestly all I care about is having bragging rights that I have the king of all cameraphones...

Plus even if you implement all that stuff to compete with Android there will be reprocussions anyway.
Suchas....

A) It will cost more money for the consumer. (Obviously it's already super expensive with the 41MP sensor in it). You may state that this doesn't matter because you will be getting subsidized costs for it being on AT&T, but what about those people who aren't on a carrier and who have to buy this phone unsubsidized? Cost is a big influential factor on whether to buy a phone or not. Just look at the latest Windows Phone 521 ad with Ben the PC guy

B) Battery life (This is a main concern for a camera centric device like this.) If it has less than a day's battery life, tech enthusiasts, bloggers, haters, are still gonna have something to complain about -like they did for the 920's weight.

C) It doesn't really matter if this phone has to compete, due to it being a niche like device. Not everyone wants/needs a 41MP cameraphone. -Just like how not everyone wants a ginormous screen like on the Note 2.

D) The US market is different on how phones are sold than compared to the rest of the world. Carriers have control over the sales of the phones here. The rest of the world...not so much. If a carrier is promoting a phone, then that salesman will most likely promote that device to the consumer. I worked phone retail before, I know how it works. I got a commission for the phone that was being promoted during a timeframe...not for the phones that I wanted to sell. -Which was ultimately the reason why I quit, as I wanted to sell phones that I felt had innovation in them...not just rehashes of the same devices. (cough* Iphone).

PS-you cannot root a WP8 device. Even though UEFI has been cracked, WP8 has only been partially ported over to the HD2 ... and AFAIK, isn't usable as an OS just yet.

I own an 808. I spent 750$ for it when it came out. The 808 is not a power hungry device...eg. it doesn't contain an HD display (720p/1080p) resolution, it doesn't contain a 4.5 inch screen size...it doesn't even contain a dual core SoC as it is running a single core 1.3GHz ARM 11 SoC with a dedicated Broadcom GPU....

Upgraded hardware such as a 1080p/720p screen WILL consume more battery life. A 4.5" screen WILL consume more battery life. A dual core/quad core SoC MIGHT (the air is open on this one) consume more battery life. If you disagree, then I HIGHLY suggest you go get in touch with the mobile world dude. Plus a 2000mAh battery is not very big for today's standards. If it was a power consuming device, I guarantee you that this phone would not have a long battery.

Now, think about this for a second...If this device was over 700$ when it came out (off contract) and it is not a powerhouse-meaning it doesn't have a high specsheet, then how the hell was it that expensive? Keep in mind, the Lumia 920 here is roughly 550$ off contract...

Obviously the 41MP sensor is what caused the it to be so expensive.

As for the Sony Homani device...it WILL still be expensive due to the Exmor stacked sensor it's bringing to the device. In addition, it will be a powerhouse phone...meaning it will have a dual core/quad core SoC, 1080p screen...etc. I guarantee you that phone will be over 700$ as well.

Now please, I suggest you go and do your research on this more before calling anyone else a troll (which I absolutely hate, as I am very much into today's mobile technology). I suggest reading up on SoC's and HD displays first and then branch off to lithium ion batteries in mobile products.

NOW you speak a partial truth!
Let us continue:
a bigger flash makes a phone more expensive (bigger meaning as in capacity, not physical size)
a bigger RAM makes a phone more expensive
a better screen, CPU, battery, OIS, Flash, radio modem (LTE), Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc
So?
BUT
"super expensive"
Remains to be seen and depends on you personal defination of that "super expensive"
If you try to imply that neither Sony's 20 Mpix or Nokia'a 41 Mpix is economically feasible then the companies desided differently.
If you try to say that the price is too much for you then you contradict yourself buying that Nokia 808
If you try to say that the price is too much for others it depends on many things, like e.g.
1) if they have the money
2) if they value the huge sensor
3) if they just want the top model no matter if it's more expensive
...
Just pull back everything you wrote and we'll be friends, ok
;-)

So it's confirmed at 41MP? Wow, just wow! I only hope that the photos are on par with (at the very least) with the 808, because I'm tired of hearing the die hard Symbian crowd belittling WP and calling it 'unworthly' of the Pureview technology.

I didn't think there was until I visited MyNokiaBlog. Dude that website is crawling with old Nokia trolls (Symbian fans) who hate WP...and Elop.

The only reason I like going to that website is because of it's inside sources they have with Nokia employees. They usually dig up dirt first on a rumor before everyone else does....but other than that, oh man it's depresssing over there. Every article has at least half the comments complaining/bashing/ WP like it is the stain of Nokia that won't go away and that Elop is the antichrist of the company. (I swear to you...it is like that most of the time). The owners should just rename the entire site to MyNokiaTrollBlog. -Because obviously there are more Symbian fans than WP fans there who cannot grasp the fact that Nokia ditched their precious OS.

Me too. While a wireless charging snap on case would probably be thin (assuming they have omitted built in wireless charging), I prefer having no cases on my devices. I'd rather have it be the same thickness as the 920 and include wireless charging built in.